


Pidge Protection Initiative

by Kickflip_Shades



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Canon Divergence, Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, Mild Language, Nonbinary Pidge | Katie Holt, Tags May Change, pidge centric, post season one, wormhole did happen but it's been dealt with shortly before this takes place
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-28
Updated: 2018-04-16
Packaged: 2018-07-26 11:11:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,277
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7571980
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kickflip_Shades/pseuds/Kickflip_Shades
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lets be real, there's no way Lance woke up like that, and they aren't talking about his looks.</p>
<p>AU of sorts based off the Protect the Pidge post made by midnightlupus over on tumblr!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Pidge was cleaning out the castle's systems when they asked for the recordings. Or, rather, was helping Coran clear out the castle's systems.

It had been several months since they'd physically taken the infected crystal out of their systems, but team Voltron had been too busy to make sure it was all cleaned out of the system until now, leading to the problems with the corrupted AI.

But now that everyone was back from their respective deep space adventures, Pidge had time to look over Coran's work. Not that the mechanic doubted his work, he knew the castle better than anyone, he just wanted them to doublecheck that he hadn't missed anything.

Which lead to them wondering how scraps could be lingering this long after the event, because Sendak wasn't trying to infect the ship like this, right? he'd been tying to fly it, so it wouldn't make any sense for him to plant something to make it turn against him. So that means it was probably after they'd sealed him in with the crystal, right? That means that the best way to see what he did would be watching the footage from that day and see if he messes with the terminal again after they locked him in there.

Pidge got the files from the princess yesterday and watched the outside to see when the particle barrier fell and switched cameras to the control room. They marked the timestamp on the video. And then they'd gotten stuck.

Grab, flinch, stir, shoot, slump. Rewind. Grab, flinch, stir, shoot, slump. Rewind.  
Like clockwork. They kept swiping the video over to the same 10 ticks, entranced by the fluidity.

They get grabbed and instantly Lance flinches. It's small, but it's there. As they hang in Sendak's grasp, he stirs awake, lines up the shot, takes it, and then just slumps back over.  
He doesn't seem to be waiting for any signal, no one touches him, no one was even looking at him, too focused on Pidge's immediate danger. 

Pidge remained trapped by the video until their finger slipped and it continued playing through to the point that they'd originally been looking for. They mark down everything Sendak touched between being locked up and cryofroze.

They hand Coran the notes.

And slip the timestamp into their own personal logs.

\---

They see Lance on scrub duty on their way to the hanger and stop to ask. He was crouched down, wiping goo out of the wall, and they don't want to know how it got there.

"Hey, do you r-" They start before being cut off by a scrub brush being tossed at their face.

"If you have time to talk, you have time to scrub" He said, before looking up at who it was and seeing Pidge's glare "O-or you don't have to, just make my life a lot easier"

They leaned down and started half-assedly scraping the brush against the green stains.

"So what's up?" He asked, clearly pleased he'd dragged someone into doing his work.

"I was reviewing some footage, and I was wondering; what woke you up when Sendak was attacking? Because you were out cold until you shot him."

"I can't remember anything actually, but it's pretty hard for me to stay asleep, did you yell or something?

They squinted, trying to recall. "When he grabbed me" Not very loud, but they had.

"Yeah, that'll do it. I'm a pretty light sleeper without my music." He started, winding himself up for a gratuitous explanation. "Being the only responsible one, I've had to babysit my sibs before and nothing wakes me up quicker than yelling. "Laance, Angie stole my doll again", "Laaaance Mrs. Alberto's cat bit me again" "Laaaaaaaaance, you're not supposed to be sleeping at noon", and I know, after they start yelling, the only way I'm gonna get any more sleep is to just deal with the situation myself, and it's not even like-" It was about this point that Pidge tuned him out, not because they didn't care, but because- Well, they didn't care as much about his sibling's antics as they cared about their own miniature mystery.

They knew without a doubt that they were not the only person who had been loud that night. Their stomach churned as they thought of the other person who had screamed-far louder than them-minutes before Lance had woken up. But if he hadn't woken Lance, why did their short yelp of surprise do anything?

They stood up to leave, passing curiosity not yet worth dwelling on those particular memories.

"-And so then it's always me getting in trouble for it even though- Wait where're you going?"

"Back to the hanger, I- uh, don't think this stain is coming out any time soon."

"That's because you're doing it wrong, here-" He took the scrub brush back from them and continued cleaning as they left.

\---

Another planet, another save, another parade.

They weren't complaining about the festivities, it's just that after the first dozen or so times, they got real tired of the spotlight. It didn't help that they were perpetually waiting for the politics to kick in. Seeing who's trying to look good and friendly with them for future gain, mixed in with those just enjoying their freedom. Pidge could usually tell them apart by how many pictures they took with everyone.

Coran had called the planet Reasiak when they entered orbit. Nothing really differentiated them from the others they'd liberated and all in all, it was a pretty normal save for them.  
They landed on the planet, got in touch with the local rebellion leaders, took out the communication hubs and trashed some bots.

That last bit was their excuse for breaking off from the parade when they did. Free Galra scrap. A whole mountain of it on the other side of an urban labyrinth. They could probably find enough intact pieces to properly build Rover2.0 

The directions they'd gotten had only lasted them for about three turns before they got lost in the circuitry of the alleyways.

Seriously, why should it be this hard to get around, they wondered. The back-alleys make up about half the roadwork in this city. If the Reasiaks just slapped some street names on them, Pidge would be fine. They wonder who they'd have to cozy up with to get that idea out on the market. Or maps, right before the entryway, that would be better than five dead ends and getting turned around every twelve seconds. They'd left their helmet in the lion, not having planned to bail like they had, but they could get a better vantage point with their bayard.

Fortunately , before they resorted to scaling the buildings, they saw three of the toad-like Reasiaks walking towards them.

Unfortunately, before they could even debate asking for directions or not, they pulled out Galra-tech blasters, which gave Pidge a lot more problems than they'd felt like dealing with.

"Freeze, rebel" The apparent leader, in a deep green robe, pointed her laser gun at them while the two in maroon stood on standby. They squinted at the trio.

"What do you want, I'm a little busy being lost over here." Slowly they moved their hand down to summon the bayard, waiting for a distraction to draw it out and escape to the rooftops.

"We want you off our planet, never to return with your treasonous words"

"Your friends over at the parade didn't seem to want us gone" The toads didn't have teeth, but visibly managed to look like they were gritting them anyways.

"Those commoners are fools, we were safer under Galra command, you've turned them to enemies of the greatest force in the galaxy" Ah, 'Commoners', there it is.

"You're the king's cronies aren't you? Well he ran the instant we got here-"

"And he is a fool for doing so!" She interjected, "We loyal to the planet are of truest asset to the empire, and overthrowing you false leaders will prove us." A purple flash in the corner of their eye makes them fear they'd been shot at, that the Reasiaks had gotten backup while Pidge had been stalling.

A glance revealed it was their own backup there for them. They made eye contact with Shiro -crouched around one of the many corners behind their temporary captors- long enough to acknowledge him. He nodded, wait for his signal then.

"And how would you even do that, we took down a whole planet's worth of drones and there's only three of you." She laughed at them, and the other two aimed their guns at them.

"What we lack in numbers we gain in superior strategy. You Voltrons, are far too emotional, we have one, we practically have the rest!" Pidge furrowed their eyebrows at the necessary pluralization of Voltron, there was only one giant robot, and separately they were "paladins". Before they could pettily pick at the error, Shiro gave the signal by leaping out from around the corner and punching one of the maroon one's gun in half.

While the Reasiak's leader was distracted by Pidge's leader throwing her guards into each other, Pidge drew their bayard and zapped her.

Shiro tossed the two next to her and Pidge used their bayard as a temporary restraint.  
He put a hand on their back

"Are you alright if I leave you here a bit?" They nodded. He removed his hand and made to move out of the alley. "I'm gonna get someone to take them out of here." A pause. "If I don't get lost first."

"Right? They definitely need maps back here"

He smiled at that "Give a shout if you need me"

He was gone for less than ten minutes, which they spent listening to the distant parade music over the occasional moan of pain.

After Shiro passed the situation over to the previous rebellion leader, they asked the question that had been pressing on them since they'd seen him.

"How'd you find me?" 

"Hunk hadn't seen you in a few minutes and got worried you'd gotten lost or in some sort of trouble."

"He was right on both counts then"

"I figured I'd better track you down, so asked for directions to the largest pile of scrap they had and went from there"

They smirked at that, guilty as charged. "You know where it is though, right?"

Shiro offered them a half shrug, "Honestly, I got lost after the first three turns"

They laughed as they followed the rebel officer down the winding paths, out of the maze. They spent the rest of the festivities sticking to the larger roads, and spent the next day helping Allura run background checks on all the potential new leaders to weed out the corrupt ones.

The day the Voltron crew left the planet behind, they got caught up looking at the city map they'd grabbed as their souvenir, and it resparked the question. How had Shiro managed to find them in the sprawling maze they'd buried themself in in the middle of? They marked the locations they'd recognized and visually followed the path to the mythical scrap heap.

The chances the two ended up in the same place were nearly impossible.

But, they supposed, stowing the map in their specified clothes-and-souvenirs-and-robot-parts drawer, that was just their team's good luck.

\----

Pidge hated nothing more than rounding errors.

Simple things, not adding up until they completely screw the calcuations over out of nowhere. And they were up to their ass in rounding errors.

A week since the Reasiak Incident and they'd been paying more attention to their teammates actions and things weren't adding up.  
Small things, knocks perfectly timed to interrupt nightmares, backup moments before they mention need for it, a shoulder to cry on happening to be up and about the same time they are, being found by teammates minutes after realizing they're lost. 

Moving a step or two over just in time to take a belatedly noticed shot for them.

Hunk was in a healing pod because of that last one and they'd locked theirself away in their room to search for what decimal point they missed.

First thoughts: they were under a tighter observation, potentially due to their notably younger age. A hidden camera observing them in their room that was alerting others of their distress, an extra positioning system in their suit that was accessible to the other four, the others playing closer attention to their safety on the battlefield -potentially planning with each other on a separate comm line.

They'd dissected the whole room for any camera or listening device other than the one they'd blacked out their first day on board. Running through the temporary footage of the previous 12 hours on their helmet, they couldn't find any breaks in conversation that could have meant conspiring.  
And they were on their second scan for any unregistered or unrecognized signals coming out of the helmet of their suit.

So that means it's time to forge onward with theory 2, Paladin BS. Or "Unexplainable phenomenon that they're stuck dealing with and trying to understand for the rest of their natural life". Which was the theory they were really hoping it wouldn't be because besides the saved 12 hour footage from the most recent battle, they had no proof. And they'd already picked that recording apart to hell and back and found nothing that wouldn't be explained by " hyper-vigilance and good teamwork".

Or. They did have something else. Maybe.

They glanced away from the wired up spacesuit and squinted at their computer, hooked up and running halfhearted diagnostics.

The video from the day the castle had been invaded was still on their laptop.

And they'd never finished investigating why Lance woke up, loud noise or not.

They closed out of the scan.

But looking at it would mean they'd have to go the part when Shiro was-

They started to close it.

But, they'd just need to look to see if Lance stirred, or flinched or anything at the time that event took place. They didn't have to see what was happening to Shiro, and could keep the volume off.

And there Pidge was stuck, trapped between their own pulling, twisting curiosity and their desire to forget those specific events.

Their door opened with a hiss and they almost dropped the laptop, Keith stood in the doorway and gave a brushed over "sorry".

"Not interrupting anything?" He asked, likely more for the pleasantry of it than anything else.

"No," they answered, setting the laptop on their bed and standing to toss the suit back into it's closet. "Just. Busywork" He leaned against their doorframe.

"Allura says he'll be fine in a few hours, it looked a lot worse than it was. And Hunk's... stronger."

"Thanks."

They stood there for a few ticks too long, waiting for the other to follow up on their respective statement. Keith broke the silence.

"I was going down to work on my hand-to-hand until he wakes up. If you wanted to join me-"

"Yeah" they said, a bit too eagerly grasping the distraction he was offering. "Sure, I'll be down in a minute."

They pulled on their suit, triple checking they'd put it back together right. 

They'd waited this long to investigate the footage, they could wait a little longer.

But- what if he did move?

\----

But what if he didn't.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Forgot to mention in the last one, but thanks to my rocking gf for making sure this isn't a total grammar disaster!
> 
> edit 01/21/17: working on more for this, but i got distracted then super sick super quick and my notes are mia. thank you for being patient!

Back in elementary school, Pidge had a teacher fail them for their science fair project.

"But, I made a lamp" they'd insisted, having cornered the teacher during lunch. And it was a rather impressive feat to be sure, patched together out of wires, electrical tape, and an empty snowglobe. Their parents hadn't known they'd been working on it until it was done.

"Yes, you did" she'd answered. "But that's not what the project was."

"Well then the project was bad, I made a lamp, that's more than Suzy did with her water."

"Suzy followed instructions. She did tests, wrote down what she found."

At this point, they sat down on the floor and crossed their arms as tight to their body as they could. Their teacher-Ms Rainson?, Ms Raville?, Ms R.- Ms R crouched down next to them with a sigh.

"You see, we were learning about the scientific method. A very important science thing."

"My lamp was a very important science thing"

"Does your lamp outline the best way to conduct experiments?"

"..No." Pidge loosened their arms a bit.

"The scientific method is the guideline that any good scientist must know how to follow, or else their science might get all messed up"

"How messed up?"

"Super duper messed up" With their attention firmly secured, she sat there with them, patiently explaining the stages of the scientific method.

 

1\. Ask a question.

2\. Do background research.

3\. Construct a hypothesis.

4\. Test your hypothesis by experimentation.

5\. Analyze your data and draw a conclusion.

6\. Communicate your results.

 

Pidge scrolled idly up and down their notes page, trying to gather their emotions and shove them aside. They'd typed up the scientific method at the bottom of the page as a checklist.

Currently, they had 1, 3, and most of 2 done. The only reason they refused to move on to 4 was that they hadn't completed step 2 fully.

It's just good science, they bargained. Checking the video is just one small step before they could start plowing through the experiments they'd been lining up.

But it would also make them a sadistic person, wouldn't it? Going back and just watching that happen to their friend for some hunch.

But they'd already planned it out, they don't have to watch anything else, they know how to crop the video so it's just Lance.

This would be their third attempt, they marked on the notes. The first two times they'd panicked and then been fortunately distracted by a teammate entering their room.

Which gives them an idea about how the whatever-it-is might work, if it's triggered by their own sense of fear or danger-

No. They need to get through this and see if it actually exists first, or if its just wishful thinking.

They opened the video files and pulled it to 10 minutes earlier than where they'd marked Lance's awakening.

Fast-forwarding until they saw Sendak start to approach Shiro, Pidge paused it and zoomed in on Lance, making sure the camera they chose was angled away from the other two. They held their breath. Then slowly exhaled. Almost started it back up.

Breathe in. Breathe out. Level headed approach.

They glance to be sure the sound is off.

No turning back.

Though, they really could, they could close the file right then and-

No. They were doing this, if only to put the paranoia at rest.

Before they could go off on another internal tangent of "but what if"s, they took in one more breath, let it out and clicked.

Lance's breaths were slow, far too slow for comfort and barely visible through the slightly fuzzy footage. His face was soon faintly highlighted in a flashing purple light that faded out too slow for them to ignore.

But, they saw-eyes still glued to the screen- he didn't flinch.

Bullshit.

Pidge furrowed their brow and clicked back the minute they'd watched. The light could have distracted them enough to miss-

Nope. Breathing, but no other movement. 

They switched the feed to frame by frame. Still no.

Damn. They switched to double speed and watched him to the point he'd woken up.

And, yeah, besides a brief bonding moment, nothing. Keith picked him up, carried him to the healing pods and he didn't move on his own the whole trip..

They had too many options to know where to go from there. Too big a part of them had been hoping this was a dead end, "fun while it lasted", investigation.

Record the data first, right. They marked the important times and labeled them "Noise" and "Wake". Short, sweet, to the point.

While they still had the nerve, they pulled up the audio file of the console closest Lance and saved the pictures of the spiking graphs at the two times, attaching them under the appropriate sections. Pidge made sure to not linger too long on the immense contrast in volume and duration.

Now what.

Format the pages? It would help keep their thoughts in order at least.

They marked this page and a half of occurrences as "Background" and opened a new one.

"Question: Lion magic or teamwork?  
Hypothesis: Lion magic"

They opened one more page.

"Tests"

\----

Testing was proving to be much harder to work than Pidge first expected. They weren't yet desperate enough to throw missions to prove their own point- they hoped they wouldn't get to that. They did start putting theirself out more in battle, getting into a few more fights, started training more. They always got assistance, but it was hard to discern between teamwork or whatever telepathy sense they were testing out.

The training room seemed like it would be easiest to get into trouble with, but since the problem with the crystal, Keith didn't like anyone going in solo in case it flipped again.

Allura gave commands and watched out over the battlefield and would tell the others if they were particularly overwhelmed.

Any trouble they got into in the common areas of the castle were easier to identify unless it was in the kitchen- childproofed to hell and back- or the dining room- the go-to spot to hang out, so it normally had crewmates passing in and out all the time.

They tried testing the brilliant idea of utilizing horror movies to test their earlier thought of it being a "beacon" sent out as a fear or stress reaction. Pidge had credits they'd gained from selling some scrap they had re-purposed into small lights and spent some at a market to buy three "film chips" labeled as horror.

Theoretically this should have been fine, a genius way to test an intangible variable. They were able to pass it off to any questioning glances that they just wanted to see how the chips were any different from DVDs. They'd actually had a decent bit of fun finding out how to integrate the older tech with the newer film chips and had it done within 24 hours. The converter they made was solid and cleanly transmitted the video and audio through whichever screen they put it through.

The problem: the species these belonged to before had very different ideas of scary. First one was brightly colored with short round characters running all around a greenhouse of sorts and they couldn't follow the plot at all. Second was from a fixed point camera in the middle of a field and had the orange humanoid actors explaining their every action in flat voices. The third was the oddest and just had flashes of light over peacock looking creatures and loud crashing noises.

They finished typing up their summary of the test and threw the chips into their souvenir drawer.

They rubbed their eyes and looked over at poor Rover2.0 on the worktable they'd dragged up from the hanger. They'd wasted money on the chips instead of looking for unbroken processors and functional batteries. Pidge closed the laptop, tossed it on their bed and kicked their chair to roll over to the table.

Wires were sticking out all over, and they gently picked at the mass of metal and wires. They sighed, they'd also used most of their functional scrap to make the converter, so they were technically further from completing him than they had been this morning- or, yesterday? Castle-time said it was 6 AM. Shiro was gonna be pissed they'd stayed up all night again. The second time this past week, sixth time this month. They'd been up thinking of new non-dangerous tests, painstakingly analyzing the day's footage, or just building and coding when their mind got too crowded trying to discern the underlying motivations. 

Shiro kept being able to take one look at them as they walked into the dining hall and call them out on it. Word would reach Coran who would then work to whip them up an Altean energy drink of sorts to help them try and keep alert for the day. The stench of it always lingered in the dining hall for hours after, an aura of their shame, hanging around to alert the others of their failure. 

Which also means the team's gonna be understandably concerned again, dammit. It was hard enough telling legitimate concern from probable lion influence, but now Hunk was going to hang a little closer in case they pass out, Lance would keep talking to them to make sure they weren't zoning, if it was a battle day, Keith would try to take on their battles as well as his own, Allura would make comments about her understanding of human's health and repeat instructions to them. Shiro would do all the above, and try to corner them for a pep talk about taking care of theirself.

They appreciated the worry, they really did, as much as they hated being a bother, they reluctantly enjoyed the feeling of being cared about. But the waters were far too muddy for them to test anything concise.

Less than a month in and they already needed a break, god.

Or, shit. Not a break. They needed a control to compare against, right?

Ideal conditions would have been to test this while they were still unaware, or at least have someone else collect and analyse the data. They were in too close with this.

But that wasn't available so, working with what they had, this should be their best option. They work on something a little less obsessive for a while- a week?, however long it took the others to stop worrying about them- they could keep their logs and such up to date, but would refrain from analyzing them immediately.

They rubbed their eyes, yawned and recorded their plan in the experiments page. Pidge locked the file back up and went to face the music.

The dining hall was thankfully empty, it being a half hour before they were required to get up. The first people to find them dozing slightly on the table were Coran and Keith. They shot upright in time to see the two look at eachother before the Coran rushed off to make the Shame Coffee.

Keith sat down next to them and Pidge put their head in their hands.

"How were the movies?" He asked. They looked up and gave their best exasperated look.

"Bad. All of them."

"They were old alien bargain-bin movies. What were you even hoping for?"

"Oh, um." They hesitated, the acrid smell of the Shame Coffee floated down from the kitchen. "Horror movie. A good one, like the ones back home."

"Are you still looking?"

They thought for a second. In all likelihood a similar opportunity to grab more movies to try would pop up, but if they kept grabbing armfuls every time the crew landed near a market that would attract way too much attention to theirself. If they just had one good movie, however, it could yield vital data.

"I'm not too hung up about it, especially after i wasted all night for", a vague hand motion, "that. But I wouldn't turn one down, if you're offering."

Before Keith could make any response about keeping his eyes peeled, Lance and Hunk entered with suspicious squints focusing in on Pidge.

"See, told you I smelled it" Hunk grabbed the seat on their other side.

"Oh man, Pidge, again?" Lance elbowed in between them on Keith.

They shrugged and set their head down on their arms.

Hunk put his hand on their shoulders. "Really, sib, you gotta stop doing this, not good"

"What made you forget this time?" Lance was exchanging subtle blows to keep his position next to them. One good shove from Keith got him out of there, shaking loose his need for an answer.

As the two bickered in the background, Pidge drifted as they thought of what they were going to spend their newly cleared time on.

Training would always be a smart idea. There was always tinkering around with the lions.

As Shiro's voice barely filtered in to the background of their thoughts, they remembered the dedicated table in their room. Their friend that needed rebuilding.

The warm hand on their shoulders gave them the comforting reminder of friends nearby as they slipped closer to sleep.

2.0 it was then.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hypothesis: if i stop updating on a schedule, i'll forget to write for an indefinite amount of time  
> Conclusion: yes.  
> Shortish one this week to get back in the swing of things, I'm expecting to post once every two weeks on Sundays.

Two weeks.

 

That's how long they gave theirself. In that time, Voltron visited 3 different planets, got into 7 different fights and 2.0 had 11 different malfunctions.

Around planet two, fight four, and malfunction six, Keith slipped them a film chip flatly labeled "Horror" in his own handwriting.

Between malfunctions nine and ten the group seemed to have fallen back into it's old routine. If you could call it that, danger-sense all but forgotten. Only a handful of guilty files buried under a mountain of mission logs and photos. Pidge toyed with the idea of abandoning their odd quest again. They were stressed enough saving the galaxy, their solo experiment would only heap onto that.

Malfunction eleven was what shook them back to their search for answers.

 

\---

 

2.0 blew up. It didn't spark and go dark, or hover for a few seconds before plummeting. It exploded. Fire and shrapnel. They made it out okay though.

Maybe it was just a loose strand of energy, maybe they'd gotten bugged software, or maybe the universe just hated them. Pidge was starting to bank on that last one, regardless of opposing evidence.

"I'm sorry" Pidge started. "I knew I shouldn't have been messing with him out in the open like that, this is exactly why we have the hangers. If I'd just gone down there instead, you'd-"

"It's fine, I promise you" Coran said. They both stood in the dining hall, plucking shard out of the wall and gently depositing them into a rag. "surprised I don't have more scars after the trouble I've been through" And there it was, fine and white, but still there. Drawing a line from the outside corner of his eye, into his hairline. A testament of how close he'd been to-

"You should've dived" They said, cutting off their thoughts.

"And left you to face it full on like that? No thank you." 

Pidge went quiet as they dropped bits of their friend into the pile. They'd rushed the job, that's why. So eager to show they'd improved their mood, to have solid proof of their efforts.

"Pidge." the mechanic didn't speak until he'd caught the paladin's eye. "It was my choice to grab you, I'll live with a little bit of scarring"

 

\---

That was the bit that stuck with them. "It was my choice" Because, if they were right, it wouldn't have been his choice, it would have been their own selfish self protection putting him in harms way.

They brushed past condolences about their bot, ignoring lances likely sarcastic recommendation to hold a funeral for 2.0 and Coran's flawless skin, and at their soonest convenience- a day later- they put the film chip Keith gave them in.

Looking at the time of day and everyone's usual schedules, this would be the perfect time to watch without any interruptions, the perfect testing ground.

A few minutes in, they had to admit that Keith had a good eye for horror, despite a few cultural differences, it still managed to chill them to the bone.

After a particularly bad jumpscare of the white spindly creature moving past their protagonist, the light on their door flashed, indicating someone was knocking. Pidge quickly jumped up, and set the screen to run codes. They carefully stepped around the open closet, before slamming it shut, still jittery from the movie.

"Pidge, you in there?" Shiro.

"Uh yeah, gimme a second" They yelled back. Pidge took a deep breath to compose theirself before opening the door. "What's wrong?"

"Oh, I was just" He squinted his eyes a touch, as though asking himself the same. Interesting. "Wondering if you were okay, I suppose Rover's mishap was a little rough yesterday." A legitimate reason, that makes this trial inconclusive by itself

"Yeah, I'll rebuild him again, 3.0, make him better." Pidge said carefully. They meant it, they really did, but, after this all was over.

"I'm sure Hunk would be more than happy to help you with him this time"

"Yeah," Their mind went to Hunk in the pod. It went to Coran in the pod. It went to any of them, getting hurt trying to help.

Shiro stayed at their door long enough that Pidge was certain he was on to their increasingly unsteady smile. He nodded before they could formulate their explanation,

"You stay safe Pidge." he tapped their shoulder. "See ya tomorrow, get some sleep"

They responded in kind and closed their door. They stood leaning against the wall until they heard his footsteps tap around the corner.

Pidge continues with the movie, recording what had just happened, and the timestamp. They manage to stretch the rest of the movie out for the next 3 hours and continue the experiment: they get scared, someone knocks on their door, the person isn't sure why they are there, they work on a project of bits and bobs until they feel ready to try again.

When they've had five of the six potential visitors, they finish the movie. The end left them with a solid sense of dread.

A knock. That had to be the sixth person, Allura.

...Or the spindly terror... Keith had a really great choice in movies, they had to admit.

They opened the door, and she was there.

"Hi, princess. What brings you here."

Allura squinted. Not in confusion or thought like the other's had. This was calculating, investigative. It struck a sense of guilt straight through them and they had to remind themself of the reason they're doing this.

"I had... a feeling" Allura started. Pide had to hide their amazement at the princess' honesty, and the most solid results they've gotten all day. "you're not up to something, are you?" Ah shit. They hadn't needed an excuse for 'vague princess magic' before.

"Nope! Just, y'know, my usual Pidge stuff. Robots. Coding. Coding Robots."

Her face fell. "I see. Well, I'll leave you to it, just know we care very much about you, Pidge." They did. That's why they had to do this.

"Goodnight, princess"

"Goodnight paladin"

~~~

Pidge was up to something.

No, it wasn't betrayal. Allura would know if it was.

The evidence as she was presented it:

Pidge began acting odd after Hunk had been hit in their stead. This was understandable, but they seemed to be wrapped up in their own head for the whole span of the- what did those earthlings call it?- month.

Pidge begins fluctuating between reckless and as careful as they can be on the battlefield, depending on their teammate's proximity.

Pidge suddenly gets "better", rushing the droid they were working on and nearly getting themself severely injured in the process. Coran didn't get away as well, Allura still remembers a panicking Pidge rushing into the med bay alongside Hunk carrying the bloodied, unconscious mechanic. She admits she rushed the job, leaving him with healing-scars. But she couldn't lose him.

Back to the topic that was at hand. Pidge, right.

This most recent endeavor was her best evidence, whatever was sending her friends flocking to their door, whatever was giving her a sense of dread. Whatever they had really been doing on the sleep mode-ed device behind them.

So, while she'd been talking with Pidge, she may have, sort of, sent one of her mice in to keep watch on them. The mouse would only tell her if there's something wrong, so it wasn't prying right? It was being a sensible leader.

At least this is what she continued to tell herself, as the investigation deepened.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ornithology: the study of birds

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry, i was busy kicking depression's ass

Allura's research was able to narrow down the timeline of Pidge's descent.

  
It started sometime between their reunion and Hunk taking the gunfire meant for them, not suddenly appearing after it as she'd thought. When reviewing her personal logs she'd noticed Pidge's twitchiness and reclusion bud before then, and only blossom past the accident.

  
She had desperately wanted to reach out, but any of her attempts slid off with the rest of the team's. A few jokes were made about typical human adolescent behavior, something their cultures seemed to share, and they found some joy in their failure.

  
Pidge was not a typical human adolescent, nor did their circumstances fit such behaviors. They seemed open to hanging around their teammates and still spoke passionately when provoked into it. While they understood the importance of their missions, they were still also taking part in the team's jests.

  
Was it- did something happen on Reasiak? It fit the timeline but Pidge hadn't shown any signs of trauma after they got lost. Which was just as well; if she'd only now uncovered a wrongdoing, she didn't know if she could stop herself from piloting the castle back and giving the captured criminals a piece of her mind and ponder giving them a piece of her gun as well.

  
No. This was a slow growing issue, wasn't it. Pidge's torment and avoidance had an ebb and flow almost directly linked to missions, and none of her previous ideas took into account the turnabout recovery and the peculiar energy that occasionally emanated from them.  
She would wait and observe. Allura did not want to confront them without the facts-it had gotten her into trouble more than once- but if this descent continued, she would very well do just that.

~~~

It had been one "week" since she asked the mice to keep watch over Pidge. Their reports were near the same, Pidge just kept adding things to files and watching recent battle footage and adding more things to different files. This was largely unhelpful as the mice could not read Earthling and she did not want to breach whatever trust Pidge had in her by forcing her way into the files.

  
(Not that she was even sure she could break the encryption on it, the slapdash slurry of altean, galran, and human coding Pidge worked into their file locks were an awe inspiring unique challenge.)

 

She'd been close to telling Corran her observations, he tended to provide excellent insight when she needed it. It could help her get past the dead end and back to finishing her quest. The mechanic might even be able to use her information to get a few answers from Pidge.

"Corran, are you busy? I was wondering if-"

"Ah-" he bumped something inside the panel he'd lodged himself in. "Just a minute princess, I'm still re- there!" Corran pulled himself out of the mess of technology to address her.

"Sorry about that, Hunk had an idea about the shields, I was just implementing it."

"What type of idea?"

"He mentioned altering it so that it's defense was more Galra-laser specific, an idea I've had a couple of times by now as those seem to be what's breaking them the most, but he proposed we do it in a method that allows us to switch the specificity on and off! Do you want to help me test it out?" he motioned to her control desk.

"Oh, of course." She stood up there and followed his instructions as he pushed the controls and talked about frequencies and power direction in ways she did not understand despite her grasp of the ship's functionalities.

After he seemed satisfied, she stepped down and listened to him explain how to turn it on and off "Not that we'll be using it in combat until we can run a few more tests, of course" and she didn't have the heart to interrupt him with her own struggles.

He was busy enough as it was, though, keeping the castle operating after their many battles, helping her research and strategize, training Voltron, and his many other duties aboard the ship. She couldn't in good conscience push these mysterious occurrences onto him as well.

 

Perhaps Shiro, his previous knowledge of Pidge may help reveal their current odd mannerisms. If not, his observations as their leader would certainly prove invaluable to cracking this mystery, a perspective from in the fray. At the very least he would help if she needed to confront Pidge with her findings and concerns.

It was hard to find a solid moment to talk to the man without drawing attention, he was constantly orbited by her shipmates. She figured the best time would be right after his solo workout, but Keith tended to force himself into the lookout room every time someone went in to train. He claimed that it was in case anybody got hurt on the training room floor, he could get them help. Allura could admit a good idea when she saw one, but it prevented her from waiting for Shiro without suspicion.

Her next three attempts to talk to him were interrupted by her fellow crew members- or rather, she interrupted them. He finally got the hint and approached her.

"Allura, is there something you wanted to talk to me about?" It was minutes after an intense training session of "dodging"-being hit by- asteroids in their lions while trying to tag out other teammates. He still looked a little knocked around, but he'd come to her away from everybody else first thing.

"Oh, it's um." She squinted at him, unsure of how to start laying out this building mystery. Dark circles were human signs of exhaustion, were they not? And his smile seemed a touch too stiff for his usual ones. He seemed a style of tired that wasn't fixed by a nights rest. The weariness caused by a long war, internal or external.

"I just wanted to make sure you were doing alright, you've been rather busy and I wanted to be sure you had been getting rest."

"Ah." His fake smile cracked into a pleasantly surprised one. "Thank you, princess. I've been getting some, but I'll rest easier after the galaxy's free."

"That doesn't mean you shouldn't get enough in now." Was this what was going through all of their minds? "Fighting is well and good, but I've learned the consequences of never taking a moment to breathe the hard way"

"If that's an order" He joked.

"One I wouldn't mind you passed on to your teammates" She let a bit of humor seep into her voice, but hoped he would follow through anyways.

While on the surface Shiro was her best option, the leader had far too many other worries weighing him down. He had only just wrested full control of his lion, and continued to relive his forgotten memories on top of needing to focus on the team as a whole and their mission.

 

It should be her job to chase what may be nothing more than fantasy and loose ends, not anyone else's wild gobshnak chase.

That was her list of nonselfish, logical reasons to keep this investigation to herself at least, but if she began her list of selfish, impulsive reasons then she would not know where it would end.

Pidge was her friend and she knew she could help them.

 

She knew she could do something.

 

She hoped.

 

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> [The post that inspired this fic](http://midnightlupus.tumblr.com/post/147256380077/lets-play-a-game-called-protect-the-pidge)


End file.
